The US is leaving, China is coming, and other overused tropes.
chinamenanewsletter.substack.com
In April 2023 I met with a senior Chinese Middle East specialist. He hadn’t been to the region since pre-COVID and I hadn’t been to China since pre-COVID either, so it was a chance for us to catch up personally and also to get a sense of what had changed in both neighbourhoods since we’d last visited. This was about a month after the Saudi-Iran rapprochement was announced in Beijing, two months after Iran’s President Raisi visited Beijing, and five months after the Xi visit to Riyadh. It was peak China-MENA, and it seemed every day I read another op-ed with a title like ‘As US Leaves the Middle East, China Fills the Vacuum’. As my colleague and I talked about what has changed - beyond perceptions - of China in the region, I cheekily referred to it as a second-tier power in the Middle East. My Chinese friend didn’t miss a beat: “Maybe a third-tier power on a good day.”
The US is leaving, China is coming, and other overused tropes.
The US is leaving, China is coming, and other…
The US is leaving, China is coming, and other overused tropes.
In April 2023 I met with a senior Chinese Middle East specialist. He hadn’t been to the region since pre-COVID and I hadn’t been to China since pre-COVID either, so it was a chance for us to catch up personally and also to get a sense of what had changed in both neighbourhoods since we’d last visited. This was about a month after the Saudi-Iran rapprochement was announced in Beijing, two months after Iran’s President Raisi visited Beijing, and five months after the Xi visit to Riyadh. It was peak China-MENA, and it seemed every day I read another op-ed with a title like ‘As US Leaves the Middle East, China Fills the Vacuum’. As my colleague and I talked about what has changed - beyond perceptions - of China in the region, I cheekily referred to it as a second-tier power in the Middle East. My Chinese friend didn’t miss a beat: “Maybe a third-tier power on a good day.”